Usenet News Conferencing

Usenet NEWS (netnews) is the other popular method of providing for asynchronous conferencing on the Internet. It can be fun and it can be informative. But beware, as it can also be offensive if you look for offensive material.

The best way to access Usenet NEWS at Penn State is through a nntp client such as Trumpet Newsreader or InterNews. Be aware that you will need a Penn State access account to post to Usenet NEWS.

Penn State neither censors nor authors information found on Usenet news. (CAC disclaimer)

• The document What is Usenet is a good starting point.
• Here is a second opinion.
• Here is a pointer to a list of newsgroup names and descriptions. Note that this list may be somewhat out of date.
• Here are pointers to two chapters on Usenet adapted from the Big Dummy's Guide to the Internet:
  • Part 1
  • Part 2
• A pointer to the Stanford Netnews Filtering Service.
• A pointer to an excellent set of Usenet FAQs. There is a good chance that one of these documents will answer your Usenet NEWS questions.
• Some Usenet newsgroups have archives. Here is a link to a page that will help you locate newsgroup archives.
• Here is a link to the EFF Extended Guide to the Internet introductory chapter on Usenet NEWS.
• More information from EFF about Usenet NEWS.

• How does one create a new newsgroup? Here are a set of documents regarding newsgroup creation.
• The huge repository of collected Usenet NEWS postings can be used as a database of information. Here is a link to one searching service Deja News

Classnews

Many Penn State courses utilize a local form of Usenet NEWS for course-related conferencing. The local system is called CLASSNEWS. A document is located at http://dtpserv.cac.psu.edu/web/classnews/index.html